Is There Wild Card Hope?
There’s no good news from last night’s game. The Mets lost 9-5 and appear to be on the brink of blowing a playoff appearance for the second consecutive year. With the loss they are now 2.5 games out of first place in the NL East and cling to a 1 game lead in the wild card race.
I don’t have too much faith in them to win the division anymore (the strength of remaining schedule is in the Phillies favor) but there is still hope for the wild card. Though the Brewers play three games against the Pirates this week they close the regular season with three against the Cubs. If the Mets can somehow make it to the weekend with the wild card lead then they may be able to pull it off.
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Mets Relocate AAA to Buffalo
After months of rumors and speculation the Mets have signed the Buffalo Bisons to a two year deal to be their AAA affiliate. The teams are rejoining 42 years after the Mets cut ties with Buffalo as their first ever AAA team.
The Mets cut ties with the New Orleans Zephyrs, their last AAA affiliate, after just 2 years. That was 2 years too many, if you ask me. I don’t mean to slight New Orleans by saying that. I understand the idea of trying to give back a little after the devastation of hurricane Katrina but a New York team has no business having their AAA team so far away from their home city.
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Not Looking Good
The Mets dropped 2 out of 3 against Atlanta and are now a 1.5 games behind Philadelphia for the NL East lead. Luckily for their playoff chances the Brewers are still free falling giving the Mets a 1.5 game lead in the wild card race. They have a tough four game series coming up against the NL Central champion Chicago Cubs. The Phillies have 6 games left against easier competition (Atlanta, Washington) than the Mets (Cubs, Florida). This puts most of the pressure on the Mets to do well in this last week of the regular season. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say they must sweep these four games to have a shot at the division.
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Mets Done With Washington
Johan Santana did what he’s paid to do and Brian Schneider increased his home run total by 29% (hitting 2 homers to increase his season total to 9) as the Mets finished off the Nationals by a score of 7-2. The Mets finished their season series against Washington with a 12-6 record but for some reason it didn’t seem so good.
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Wild Night
What a crazy game last night. Early in the season I call games like that character builders. At this point in the season they are games that should not happen. At this point of the season the Mets should be able to put away a team like the Nationals. A 7-1 lead in the 4th inning should not become a 9-7 win. On the other hand a 7-1 lead is not a bad time to have your bullpen give up a few runs. Maybe it’ll get them one step closer to filling their quota of lousy games on the year. (They’re already over the quotas of most bullpens historically.)
On the plus side, Carlos Beltran hit two home runs and now has 26 on the season. Carlos Delgado also hit a homer and has 36 on the year. Brandon Knight gained his first win by tossing 5 innings of 6 hit, 2 run ball. He walked 4 while striking out 5. It’s not exactly a Cy Young type of win but still a nice showing by the rookie.
With the win the Mets maintain a .5 game deficit to the Phillies in the NL East but a .5 game lead on the Brewers for the Wild Card. One more game to go in Washington before moving on to play 3 in Atlanta over the weekend.
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Tentative 2009 Schedule
The Mets released the tentative schedule for the 2009 season. You can view it here.
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Wright On The Road Ahead
David Wright on the Mets current situation:
“This is what makes it fun…This is what you work hard for. This is what you prepare for…This is a bump in the road. It doesn’t matter what Philadelphia does. It only matters what the guys in this clubhouse do and we plan on getting the job done. Like I said, we’re gonna see what we’re made of. This is a little bump in the road, and I’m excited moving forward because I think we’ve got a room full of guys who will not allow us to fail.”
It does matter what Philadelphia does but it matters more what the Mets do. You can only be responsible for your own actions and not that of others. But it matters what the others do because it affects your own position. Beyond that I like to hear him talking positively and about working hard to get the job done.
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Linescores
What does everyone think of the linescores I’ve been putting at the top of posts made following game days? Let me know in the comments, by email or the contact form (click the Contact link in the header of the center column of the blog).
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Tatis Done For Year
Despite their recent struggles you can’t stick a fork in the Mets quite yet. Fernando Tatis, on the other hand, is done. At least for the year. He suffered a separated right shoulder when he attempted to make a diving catch.
Tatis hit .297 with 11 home runs and 47 RBIs and was a star fill in while the team was suffering with injuries to both corner outfielders. He surpassed expectations and will be missed in the final couple of weeks of the season.
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Fading Fast
I disappear for the week and the Mets lead in the NL East disappears too. Crazy how that works.
The Mets fell half a game behind the Phillies last night after losing three of their last four games. As most Mets fans, I’m having flashbacks to last year. They lost their grip at exactly the same time of the season (17 games left) in 2007. This time their lead wasn’t as much as it was last year but they were playing really good ball before shutting down. It was only a few years ago that owner Fred Wilpon said he’d like to get his team to play meaningful games in September. At this point fans are saying the same thing. The team is in meaningful games in September but their just not playing.
Monday night’s embarrassment boiled down to an offense that couldn’t score and a starting pitcher (Pedro Martinez) who couldn’t get the job done. Pedro allowed 8 hits and 4 earned runs while striking out 3 and walking 4 in 6 innings. Duaner Sanchez‘s lousy outing (.1 IP, 2H, 3 ER, 1BB) didn’t end up having any bearing on the outcome.
It’s hard to say if that game was tougher than last night’s. Mike Pelfrey threw 7 innings of 1 run ball but the offense couldn’t even match that run total as the Mets fell to the Nationals 1-0. They could only muster up 4 hits against scrap heap revival project Odalis Perez.
The team has 2 more games against the Nationals (tonight and tomorrow night). If their going to make a run they’re going to have to win them both. You can’t lose against last place teams and expect to win the division. And the Wild Card isn’t a given either with only a .5 game lead over the Brewers.
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